kaomoji

[ kou-moh-jee ]

/ kaʊˈmoʊ dʒi /

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noun, plural kao·mo·ji, kao·mo·jis.

Digital Technology. a Japanese-style emoticon that uses Japanese characters, Latin letters, and punctuation marks in combination to represent a facial expression that conveys an emotion. Unlike emoticons used by English speakers that depict the face horizontally, kaomoji are vertical depictions of faces, as (^.^) smiling eyes, (^_~) a winking eye, (>.<;) a bead of sweat, or sometimes include depiction of arms, as if raised in celebration \ ^^ /.

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QUIZ YOURSELF ON "WAS" VS. "WERE"!

Were you ready for a quiz on this topic? Well, here it is! See how well you can differentiate between the uses of "was" vs. "were" in this quiz.

Question 1 of 7

“Was” is used for the indicative past tense of “to be,” and “were” is only used for the subjunctive past tense.

true

false

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Compare emoticon, emoji.

Origin of kaomoji

First recorded in 1985–90; from Japanese kao “face” + moji “(written) character”; cf. emoji

Words nearby kaomoji

kaoliang, kaolin, kaolinite, kaolinize, kaolinosis, kaomoji, kaon, Kaopectate, Kao Tsu, kapa haka, ka pai